When Only Chicken Stew Will Do

Photo © Rob Jones

After a hard day trying to work out what you can and cannot do, with or without whom, when and where, you need something to lighten the mood.

The food of choice - Chicken Stew and Suet Dumplings.

Actually I have to confess that - due to a bout of laziness - I was about to make a terrible mistake. Luckily I was headed off at the pass before things got too serious. Basically, I thought I was going to make Pork and Pear Casserole. I’d already dunked my strips of ‘pork’ in flour and cracked black pepper, and was heading into the larder to get the pears when someone piped up…. ‘what are you making with this chicken?’

ME: ‘Chicken?’

CHORUS: ‘Yes, Chicken.’

(Thinking on feet as I went to fetch my glasses from the other room.)

ME: ‘Yes, … with this chicken… I am making … Chicken Stew and Dumplings.’

CHORUS: ‘Oooh, lovely.’

Victory snatched from the jaws of defeat.

……..

Ingredients:

500g Chicken Strips
250g New Potatoes
3 Onions
2 Carrots
1 Stick of Celery
Large Handful of Mushrooms
Half a dozen Spring Onions
3 Cloves of Garlic
Salt and Pepper
Pint of Chicken Stock
Cup of White Wine
Dab of Fortified Wine (I used some Damson Gin)
Some dried Thyme

Chop finely and fry off the celery, garlic, spring onions and ordinary onions in some olive oil and butter. Set aside.

Finely chop the carrots and potatoes and place in the slow cooker and sprinkle with Thyme.

Cover the CHICKEN strips in a mixture of flour, cracked pepper and a pinch of salt. Seal them in the pan and place over the vegetables in the slow cooker.

Cover the chicken with the onion/celery/garlic mix.

Add the stock and white wine. Top up with hot water till everything is covered.

Cook in the slow cooker for hours and hours, turning down an hour or so before serving.

You might want to thicken the stew with a little cornflour in water mix, if you like your stew a little ‘school dinnerish.’

For the Dumplings:

100g Plain Flour
50g Suet
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 Teaspoons of Baking powder
Knob of butter
Warm Water.

Add all the dry ingredients together and then dribble in the water until the mixture is moist but not sticky.

Roll into large gob-stopper balls in your hand and add stew, leaving plenty of room for expansion.

Serve with crusty bread and butter.

RJ